


Ice water like blood running through my veins

by KiriJones



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Robb has a Stark aunt, and she is a badass, and slightly crazy, but before Ned is killed, or is she?, starts after Robb is declared King of the north
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-11-23 16:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11406474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiriJones/pseuds/KiriJones
Summary: When the news of his father's death reaches him Robb Stark feels like he is teetering on the edge. Afraid he will fail the North like he has failed his father and his sisters. But then she appears. With her her black hair and mismatched eyes Alyssa Snow arrives in his camp. His aunt was the bane on the honor of Rickard Stark; the result of a drunken encounter between himself and the younger sister of Jon Arryn, Sharra.His father always warned him that Alyssa was calculating, ruthless, and greedy. That may be true. But she may in fact be the only hope Robb has of fulfilling his destiny and saving the North from destruction.





	1. Chapter 1

His aunt stands before him. It has been almost seven years since he saw her last. She has not changed at all. Her hair is still as dark as a raven's wing. Her skin pale with freckles marring much of it. She is smirking at him and looking at his men with contempt like they are the bugs to be squashed beneath her boot clad feet. And those eyes are still as unnerving as they ever were. Her eyes are large and framed by long lashes. They are uncanny. The left is the Stark grey. And the right is a pale blue, a sign of her Arryn heritage. Separate they would not be much but together they clash and do not belong. 

Alyssa Snow walks with purpose. She does not bow before him. It has been less than a day since his men declared him King in the North. He has barely had any time to adjust to it before this arrogant woman comes waltzing into the camp. With only a   A few guards she presumes that her blood relation with him will protect her. Or at least that is what his mother was muttering. Robb has never been able to read his aunt. According to his father it has always been that way. Ned Stark had loved his sister. But he had been the first one to say that she was unpredictable, greedy, and cold. 

Now she stands before him clad in a light cloak and a form fitting sapphire blue dress that hugs every inch. Her hair is shorn short barely touching the top of her shoulders. Well worn boots adorn her feet. A belt is strapped around her waist and carries a dagger and a short sword. It does not surprise Robb. Oftentimes his father would relate stories of his youth. Stories of s young Alyssa Snow learning to fight from Ned himself and Robert Baratheon when they were mere youth in the Eyrie. Tales a girl who was much to stubborn for her own good and too beloved by Jon Arryn to ever try and stop her. 

His aunt looks up at him. Small wrinkles have formed at the corners of her eyes and mouth. But they are not very noticeable. Robb thinks they would be if she ever truly smiled. But Alyssa Snow has never truly smiled in his presence. 

Her eyes flicker to his mother. Her eyes narrow and the contempt in her eyes seems to increase tenfold. And then she speaks, "Catelyn Tully. How good it is to see you again after all of these years." Robb sees the men around them shift and look at his mother, at the not so subtle reminder of his aunt that his mother is not one of them. She is not of the North. She is a fish, not a wolf. And he can also tell by the tone of her voice that she has not missed her one bit. 

Robb is about to speak in the defense of his mother when the gaze of his aunt shifts to him. She slowly looks him over from head to toe. She does not blink as her eyes then meet his own. And although her face does not change her voice softens. Her melodic voice carries, "Robb, my boy. It is good to see you. I see much of your father in you. Ned would be proud of the man you are becoming." 

The silence carries as he rises from the make shift throne his men erected for him. He stands before Alyssa. Her is taller than her by a bit. She simply arches an eyebrow and then snaps her fingers. One of the men who came with her immediately moves off his horse and begins to unstrap something from his saddle. Robb looks and sees that it is large and long. 

"I wish our meeting could have been under better circumstances. But that can not be helped. But it is good you are now King. And I come bearing gifts nephew. You are the Stark in Winterfell. And like all those before you the weapons you carry will define you." 

The man comes to stand beside his aunt. And by then the clothe obscuring the object has begun to unravel. And it is then that Robb sees the pommel and disbelief fills his body. It is not possible. It should be in King's Landing, not here mere feet from him. His aunt grabs the object and hands it to him. "Your father wanted you to have this. Wield it with care and may the blood of our enemies decorate its edge." Her voices rings out loudly and he hears it barely over the ringing in his ears and the gasps of his men.

the cloth falls away to reveal Ice. The sword carried by countless Starks before him. The weapon of his house, the weapon his father took South with him. Robb wants to shake her and demand how she care to have it. Instead he unsheathed it and holds it in awe. A strength fills hi m and he barely finds his voice. "I thank you Aunt. I will have the honoring of using this nightly weapon until my father is able to take it up once more." He  raises it above his head and soon his mean raise their own swords and chants of KING IN THE NORTH fill the air. 

He looks at the woman in front of him. His eyes are filled with a peculiar sorrow at the mention of his father. But still she nods at him. It is then he notices the soldier standing beside her is wearing armor with a peculiar signet on the shoulder. That of a blue rose that only grows in the North. 

 


	2. Chapter 2

When the news comes Alyssa Snow does not break down and cry. Instead she calmly finishes eating her meal slowly and methodically. She is the perfect portrait of a composed lady. She will not break. This was she knew would happen. Ned was always too good for this world. They all knew his honor would always be the thing that killed him. She does not scream or rage. Instead she leaves the table in her small tent and goes to find Robb. 

Her last name is Snow but really she has always been more of a Stone than anything. For all the years she has wandered and all of the things she only one place has ever been home. The Eyrie is where she belongs. The Vale is where her heart resides. It is there her fondest memories took place. She loved people there and was loved in return. And now another part of that has been ripped away from her. Robert is dead. Ned is gone. And so is her uncle. She is all that remains of that small and patchwork family they made. 

The wind has begun to blow and Alyssa closes her eyes and suddenly her mind is in another. She is flying and then she sees him at the edge of the camp. Savoring the moments of freedoms Alyssa is thrust back into her body and begins to move with purpose. She has nothing left now but the children of Ned. These naive and imperfect children are her only chance. 

Robb is king now. King of the North and the Riverlands. And she will add the Vale to his collection. The lunatic wife of her uncle will be disposed of. And his son she will send to the Wall or perhaps East if she is feeling generous. She has promised Ned that she would keep his children safe. She had told him that she would make them great. And so she would. Their enemies would be cut down and at the end all will fall before the Houses of Stark and Arryn. 

But she has much work to do. First she must make Robb the great man he could be. The man he must be. And the first step towards that us getting his mother out if the picture. She will send the Tully fish back to Riverrun where she belongs. Robb will not need his mother, his aunt is all that he will need. She will bring him allies and power. She will teach him to become a warg. She will not let him become his father. 

High as Honor, they are the words of her mother's House. Alyssa has no honor. She will do whatever is needed to achieve her goals and she will cut down who and whatever get in her way. Robb will soon learn the lesson she was taught the day she entered the world. The day she killed her mother as she was born. Alyssa Snow became a kinsalyer the day she first drew breathe. It was always this sign that have her the strength to carry on and made the steel grow in her spine. Blood has dyed her hands since that day, so what is a little more?

she finally finds Robb with tears in his eyes hacking at a tree with a plain sword. She sees Ice thrown a few feet away. Good. He is not damaging the Valariyan steel. It would be hard to fix. He is mourning his father and in that moment he is vulnerable and alone. Alyssa draws him into her arms and he goes without complaint. For a moment is still and then to her sunrise his arms encircle her and his head rests on her shoulder. 

She soothingly pats his back and smiles. He vows to kill them all. Something like peace fills her black heart. She will take this boy and mold him into something great. She will fulfill her promises to Ned and Robert. She will avenge them all. And she will make her enemies fly. 

In the back of her reptilian mind a thought echoes that she is merely using this boy, moving his like a chess piece on a board. And maybe she is. But she can feel a fondness for this young wolf in her mind. He is King. And he will be the one who helps her gain back her home. At the end of it all she can see him in Winterfell sitting on  a weirwood throne with a crown like hose of cold on his head. And she sees herself at the Eyrie. Home where the ghosts of old she will willingly let haunt her and lose herself in. 

As she vows that she will help him avenge his father she opens her eyes and sees snow gently beginning to fall as their breathes become visible. She should have been born a Stone but she bears the name Snow, maybe this is sign from the old gods. Who knows? But she will take it.

and as Robb continues to silently cry she sees his mother at the bottom of the hill. And then she hears the birds and looks to the branches of the trees. A score of birds are in the trees looking right at her. She closes her eyes and can feel her soul move. And in the moment her eyes close the birds in the trees all take flight soaring high into the cold bright sky. 


End file.
